


lover's crown of mrytle

by siojo



Series: flower shop au [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Flowers, M/M, Pre-Slash, mentioned Law, mentioned Shanks, younger Luffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 17:24:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13722483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siojo/pseuds/siojo
Summary: Ace is tired and wants to go home and take a nap. He thinks that before his mom tells him to, but first he has to take Luffy to the store to pick up flowers for Shanks and Law, since they're both in the hospital. Ace doesn't know where Luffy got this idea that they needed to take flowers to the hospital, but Ace is willing to get them.





	lover's crown of mrytle

Ace yawns, feeling the long hours at work starting to catch up with him as he leans against the warm brick of the hospital. It’s only noon, but he had been at work for almost twelve hours before the scheduling manager had come to demand that Ace go home before he got them in trouble with the union for overworking him. Again.

 

“You look like you’re going to collapse,” Ace jolts and glances over at his mom, her eyebrow raising as she studies him. “Don’t you think that Ace should sleep more, baby?”

 

“Ace should sleep lots!” Luffy agrees, bunny hopping closer and pouting when Rouge doesn’t let go of his hand. “Tia, wanna hug Ace!”

 

Rouge laughs, “Of course, how could I not realize. Can I have a goodbye hug and kiss first? Or do you want to be with your big brother so much that you can’t say bye to tia?”

 

“Bye tia!” Luffy hugs her so tightly around the waist that Ace can see how hard he’s trying. “Oh, tia! Tell Ace ‘bout the flowers!”

 

“Oh, the flowers!” Rouge nods, brushing Luffy’s hair back, reaching into her purse, and handing Ace a credit card that he knew had his name on it. “Luffy wants to get Shanks and his little friend, Law, flowers before you go and visit them. Do you think you can pick them up?”

 

“We can do that. I know that there’s a flower shop around here that we can go to before coming back to visit. Sound like fun, Luffy?” Ace laughs as Luffy bounces, hanging tightly to Ace’s pants. “Alright. Thanks again for watching him, mom. The daycare is still closed since someone sent their kid in with chicken pox.”

 

“Parents,” Rouge shakes her head and stepping closer to kiss Ace’s cheek. “Go get flowers for the little one’s friends and then go home and take a nap. You look dead on your feet and you know that your narcolepsy will only get worse if you don’t sleep normally.”

 

“Yes mom, I’ll see you tomorrow for brunch?” Ace asks taking Luffy’s bag from her and teasing Luffy’s fingers from his belt so that he could hold his hand instead. “Or did we move that to lunch?”

 

“Brunch. Your father wants to see you. He’s still upset that he missed last week’s lunch. Apparently it’s all my fault for not convincing you to stay for dinner,” Rouge rolls her eyes because this is a normal reaction when it comes to his father. “But I shouldn’t keep you any longer, Luffy looks like he wants to go.”

 

“We have to get the flowers, tia! Before the store closes and we can’t see Shanks and Law!” Luffy bounces and Ace smiles softly because he doesn’t think Luffy stops bouncing unless he’s asleep. He’s cute like that. “Please Ace?”

 

“Alright, alright,” Ace laughs, tugging the strawhat, that Shanks had given Luffy a few weeks before, into his eyes. “Say bye to tia and we’ll go get those flowers. Bye mom.”

 

“Bye tia!”

 

Ace waits until his mom has climbed back into her car before glancing down at Luffy and squeezing his hand softly, “Shall we go and get flowers for your friends?”

 

“Yeah! Come on, Ace! We gotta find the flowers!”

 

“Lower volume, Lu,” Ace says pressing a finger to his lips as he heads in the direction that he thought one of the other nurses, who had heard from Jozu and Vista, had pointed to when someone had asked about flowers during his last shift. “You know that you can get too loud.”

 

“But we’re outside,” Luffy whines. “I thought that meant no more inside voices?”

 

“Sometimes you have to use your inside voice all the time,” Ace explains, checking that the card was still in his chest pocket. “And that’s not fun, but when you’re here, it’s how it’s supposed to be. Okay?”

 

Luffy sighs, face shifting to the level of put upon that Ace has only ever seen on young children, “Fine. But Ace, it’s no fun.”

 

“I know it isn’t, but that’s how it works. Now, do you see flowers?”

 

“Mhm.”

 

Ace watches Luffy bounces on his toes, trying to get taller as the sidewalk gets less crowded. Ace glances to the other side of the street, humming when he spots a bakery, which explained how Oars kept his cookie jar stocked, and a small used book store but no-

 

“Luffy!”

 

Luffy laughs giddily, already too far ahead for Ace to reach him before he hits the sidewalk, skidding to a stop just short of it, “Ace! Look, I found flowers!” Before slamming the door open hard enough to make Ace wince and run faster before Luffy was banned from the store, slipping across a puddle and catching himself.

 

“Luffy D Monkey, I thought you knew the rules!” Ace shouts and winces because he hadn’t meant to be that loud. “Luffy. Hey, don’t cry, I’m sorry for yelling. But Lu, you know better than running off on your own. You know the rules.”

 

“Sorry Ace,” Luffy mumbles, kicking the sidewalk, eyes big and watery. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have run away but it was right here and I wanted to get there before it closed.”

 

“The flowers shop isn’t closing for six more hours. Sorry,” A man with a fumbled undercut and a green apron. “I couldn’t help but overhear.”

 

“See, there’s still plenty of time before the store closes. You shouldn’t let go of my hand when we’re walking. The city is dangerous and can you imagine how sad tia and I would be if you got hurt? If you went missing?”

 

“Tio too?”

 

“Tio would be very upset. You know that tio loves you and thinks of what vô would say. Vô sent you to tio and tia so that they could watch you and if you got hurt, he would be very upset with us. Might even take you away from us.”

 

Luffy gasps, shaking his head and throwing himself at Ace, “Don’t let vô take me, Ace. I want to stay with you and tia and tio! You can’t let him!”

 

“You aren’t going anywhere,” Ace promises, hugging him back. “Now, we can talk about this when we go home. Weren’t we here to get flowers for Shanks and Law?”

 

“We can still get them?”

 

“We can still get flowers. Now, come on,” Ace picks him up, shifting Luffy to sit on his hip as he turns to look at the man who had initially spoken to them, “I’m sorry about that.”

 

“It’s fine, there’s no one else here besides us. And you look like you were scared of him being hurt, which is understandable,” He wipes his hands on his apron, “I’m Marco, I hear you are looking for flowers?”

 

Luffy nods, clinging closely to Ace, and Ace feels even more guilty for it, “My Shanks and Law are in the hospital and Ace said that we could get them flowers to make them feel better. Can you help us make pretty flowers for them?”

 

“I think that I can, do you have any flowers that you want to give them?” Marco asks. “We have a lot of flowers.”

 

“Law likes yellow and black.”

 

“Those are nice colors, I don’t have any black flowers, do you think he’ll like blue or maybe another color instead?”

 

“Law like polar bears,” Luffy says perking up because he’s resilient like that. “Do you have white flowers?”

 

Marco nods, “We do! But, you should pick out vases first. Do you want to pick them? They’re on that little shelf.”

 

“Ace,” Luffy tugs on his shirt. “Can I pick vases? Please, please, please!”

 

“Go ahead, but be careful. You don’t want to drop them. They’re probably glass and that is sharp. Remember when you broke that cup when tia helped you paint easter eggs?” Luffy nods. “So be careful and pick out two. When you bring them back we’ll pick out the flowers.”

 

“Okay Ace!” Luffy agrees.

 

“Please don’t run,” Marco adds. “The floor can be wet!” Luffy slows but still moves faster than Ace would like him to when there’s a chance that he might slip. “Do you have a budget? I can keep him from going over it, if you want?”

 

“It’s fine. Unless he wants to buy the whole shop, we should be fine. Or you have a flower that’ll cost me several thousand? My parents are covering, Shanks is technically my older brother and Dad thinks that Luffy needs more friends.”

 

Marco laughs, “Then we’ll have some fun. I don’t have anything that expensive and-,” He glances at Luffy and shakes his head, “Mason jars. I should have guessed.”

 

“Ace!” Luffy doesn’t bounce and holds the jars close to his chest as he moves, the slowest that Ace has ever seen Luffy move. “I picked these. Do you think Shanks and Law will like them?”

 

“I think they’re great Lu. How about I hold one while you and Marco here pick out some flowers for Law? And then you can give me that one and pick out flowers for Shanks?” Ace offers crouching down to Luffy’s level. “Sound okay?”

 

“Yeah! This one is for Shanks!” Ace accepts it. “Please help me get Law flowers now?”

 

Ace follows them, letting Luffy point to the flowers and watching Marco organize them into something that looked nice. He takes it when Luffy holds it out and asks him politely, it’s cute how excited Luffy is over flowers and something so simple as being allowed to pick them. Marco doesn’t treat him like Luffy’s choices don’t work together, even though Ace can tell some of them clash. Marco makes it into something that almost looks as good as the ones in his mom’s magazines.

 

“There you go,” Marco says finishing up Shanks’ flowers. “What do you think Luffy?”

 

“It’s perfect! Ace look!”

 

“I see,” Ace agrees. “Come on, we have to pay Marco for the flowers and then we can go back to the hospital and visit them. And then we’ll go home and take that nap that tia told us to take.”

 

“Tia told you to nap. I don’t have to nap!”

 

“Mhm, then I suppose you don’t want dessert tonight either. Because only good kids get dessert or,” Ace grins. “We could have extra veggies for dinner.”

 

“No! No, not that!” Luffy shrieks and Marco looks like he’s trying not to laugh as he rings them up and accepts Ace’s card. “Please Ace, not extra veggies.”

 

“If you nap then you won’t have to worry about that.”

 

“Fine,” Luffy whines, his little arms crossed over his chest. “Ace, I have to go.”

 

“We have a bathroom behind the vases,” Marco offers and Luffy moves quickly but still slow enough to keep from slipping too much. “He’s energetic.”

 

Ace laughs, “You have no idea. I would swear that my mom fed him sugar before giving him back to me, if this wasn’t how he always acted.”

 

“He’s cute. He reminds me of my littlest sister when she was that age. Of course that was years ago, she’s almost fifteen now.,” Marco pauses for a moment. “You should be able to keep these alive for a week if you keep them watered.”

 

“Thanks. Luffy will probably want more when they die and Law will be in for a while longer. Shanks is suppose to get out in another week or so. Do, do you know why Jozu and Vista keep buying flowers and passing them out to the rest of the staff?”

 

“Because Jozu thinks that he can win over the surgical nurses and make sure that he has his pick when he has to operate. Vista doesn’t want him to have that power and is trying to win them over to his side. Is it working?”

 

Ace snorts, “The nurses are taking sides and the ones that I think they’re trying to win over are ignoring them both.”

 

Marco grins, “Good. You see the surgeons often?”

 

“Surgical nurse.”

 

“Ace!” Luffy slams into Ace’s legs and he grabs the counter so that they don’t fall to the ground. “I’m done, can we take them our flowers now?”

 

“We can, say thank you.”

 

Luffy grins brightly, “Thank you! You make real pretty flowers!”

 

“Thank you, but it was only because you picked such pretty flowers for me to make.”

 

“Ace, are you gonna give him the extra monies?”

 

“I did,” Ace agrees and hopes that his mom doesn’t look at the transactions too closely because he had tipped more than he likely should have. “Hold your flowers for Law and we’ll go and take them to the hospital, sound good?”

 

“The hospickle! Thanks again, for the flowers!”

 

“Really, thanks,” Ace agrees. “Have a great day.”

 

Luffy glances up at Ace as they head back up the street to the hospital, “Are you gonna ask him on a date? Tia says you should date more.”

 

“W-what?” Ace chokes, taking the hand that Luffy lifts up to hold his. “What did tia say about me and dating?”

 

“That you should date and then I would have Ace and who ever Ace dates, that’s a whole new person! Marco was real nice.”

 

“Nope, no! You are gonna stop right there, young man and we are going to take these flowers to the hospital before going home. Where we will nap.”

 

“And call tia?”

  
“And call tia,” Ace agrees looking at the card stuck in between two of the flowers in Shanks’ arrangement and the words _if you’re interested_. Ace smiles and glances at Luffy babbling about something else. He was very interested and he didn’t even have to explain to this one that he technically had a kid.

**Author's Note:**

> tia: according to google is portugese for aunt  
> tio:same for uncle  
> vô: gramps
> 
> thanks to anadiangelo for coming in to help me with the portugese!
> 
> (Luffy picked which family member he wanted to stay with and while he did stay with Roger and Rouge for a few weeks, he likes Ace better and Ace is weak to his brother, much younger cousin, and can't say no.)


End file.
